Data from 40 packaged software development teams are used to test
a path model that relates three antecedents, the presence of intragroup conflict
and the level of conflict management to software development team performance.
Findings indicate that a combination of the team’s characteristics, team member
characteristics and existing levels of intragroup conflict accounts for nearly onehalf of the variance between the best and worst-performing teams. Furthermore,
the level of conflict management moderates the relationship between existing
levels of intragroup conflict and performance. These results highlight both the
complexity of the social processes of packaged software development and the
value of this perspective for gaining insight on software development performance.